Eat of the good things: what a start!

05 September 2011

This exciting new community campaigning and leadership skills project, providing 20 young Muslims with the opportunity to explore and connect the issues of global food production and the environment, has taken off with a flying start.

The project launched with a two-day program at the end of July, introducing the volunteers to each other and the project organisers. The weekend program included a fun start at Spitalfields City Farm and continued on to some very interesting introductory workshops and discussions.

The volunteers kicked off with a challenge - they planned, organised and ran an event in Ramadan to promote awareness of the issues and the project among the local community. This manifested in a wonderful iftar event, providing guests with free organic food, talks by experts from Oxfam and Zaytoun, a mini-bazar selling ethically-sourced produce, and a photo exhibition showcasing iftar around the world. The evening was a great success.

On Saturday 3rd Sept, the ambassadors met again at Spitalfields City Farm to prepare land for planting seeds. It was a long day of hard but rewarding work. Everyone went home tired but happy... and were all up bright and early the very next morning for a day of workshops and discussion at London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel at MADE in Europe HQ.

We had very interesting discussions and presentations involving the issues around animal welfare and the food industry, including a screening of the brilliant American documentary film Food Inc. Phil Brooke from Compassion in World Farming joined us for a lively discussion on the issues raised in the film, and how it relates to similar problems here in the UK. We also had a campaigning skills workshop, which was very educational and much enjoyed by all.

The Eat of the Good Things ambassadors are meeting next on Saturday 17th September. Really looking forward to it!